Wall Street Journal Says No More Cheap Overseas Prescriptions Shipped to USA?

I only have experience with Jagdish. It is sort of a price list. I tell him the pharma I want and he sends back a list with the prices for each brand of the specific drug. Sometimes the list is as thin as two options. On sirolimus, for example, he gave me a price for two brands. I wasn’t smart enough to pick the right one and he gave no advice on that.

Finally got access to the full Wall Street Journal Article:

Americans Are About to Lose Access to Cheap Gray-Market Prescriptions From Canada

Millions who use online pharmacies from Canada and other countries could get cut off in October

Diamantina Cavazos, 38-year-old Dallas-based project manager, has used an online Canadian pharmacy for two years to buy a prescription drug for around $10 a week, a fraction of what it costs in the U.S.

As of next month, a loophole that allows her to personally import the medication, Xifaxan, for her painful gut condition, is closing.

She will have to pay $1,100 a week for her prescription because she couldn’t get it covered by her insurer in the U.S. “I’m extremely upset,” she said.

Cavazos is one of millions of Americans who use foreign mail-order pharmacies, mostly from Canada, to acquire affordable daily medications. They are facing an impending deadline that could abruptly cut off their prescription supply.

These patients are racing to stock up on medications before late October, when a rule goes into effect requiring medications mailed from abroad to go through a customs process requiring a licensed customs broker and a financial guarantee—a bar few individual mail-order prescriptions have ever had to clear.

The government is trying to crack down on illegal contraband that it says comes into the country through low-value foreign shipments that don’t pay tariffs or submit data for tracking.

“There will be just a full stop of anything coming into the States,” said Tim Smith, general manager of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, a trade group of licensed Canadian pharmacies that has built much of its business on serving American patients. “These are cash-strapped, uninsured or underinsured people; many senior citizens on fixed incomes.”

More than two million people in the U.S. who take prescription drugs bought them from outside the country to save money, according to a 2020 study published in JAMA Network Open, some of the most recent research available on the topic.

The practice has operated for decades in a legal gray area: technically barred under FDA rules, importers say it is rarely enforced. Customs agents have historically waved through low-value, personal-use packages rather than individually checking each one against the agency’s criteria.

The U.S. government has already made these imports more difficult. Starting in August of last year, patients ordering medication by mail have had to start paying customs fees on shipments that previously arrived free of charge.

The new rule fully closes the regulatory gap on Oct. 22.

After that, prescription drugs will need to move through a formal entry process with an accountable company or person legally on the hook if a shipment doesn’t qualify.

Zonos, a St. George, Utah-based company that processes customs documentation for foreign mail services, handles much of the mail moving through Canada and other countries.

That means Zonos, not customs agents at the border, will effectively decide which packages get through—by checking each one against the FDA’s actual criteria for personal drug imports, most of which have gone unenforced at scale for years. Zonos didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The FDA generally won’t stop a personal shipment if it treats a serious illness with no good U.S. treatment, isn’t marketed to American consumers, carries no unusual safety risk and comes with a doctor’s note for a 90-day supply or less. Before the rule change, that was rarely checked upfront for parcels under $800 in value because of a decades-old customs exemption for low-value mail.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the FDA would continue to evaluate personal imports on a case-by-case basis.

Smith said his members have relied on the FDA’s leniency for 25 years, and that the era is ending. “Rather than exercising discretion, they’re going to exercise enforcement,” he said.

Ken Hunter, executive director of the New Jersey-based Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation, or CPPI, said the situation turned into a “five-alarm issue” when logistics operators such as Zonos began notifying shippers of the October cutoff.

In less than two weeks, his group’s membership surged by 20,000 people. The organization has fielded more than 1,000 frantic emails and coordinated more than 28,000 letters sent to members of Congress.

Hunter said many U.S. patients rely on cheaper imports for drugs they will take for life. Eliquis, a blood thinner, is one of the most commonly ordered. A 90-day supply from Canada costs less than $600—almost half the U.S. retail price on domestic discount platforms.

Many patients have told Hunter they will cut their doses, skip pills or go without their medications entirely in anticipation of the rule change. “It is just such an avalanche of fear and concern out there,” he said.

Northwest Pharmacy, a British Columbia-based international drugstore, wrote in a blog post that orders placed after Oct. 9 wouldn’t be guaranteed for delivery and that the company had stopped replenishing its inventory. A different online pharmacy, which urged people to stock up on as much medication as possible, said the change would put it out of business.

The rule applies to any FDA-regulated mail shipment from any country, including smaller medication pipelines from India, the United Kingdom, Australia and Turkey. It doesn’t change regulations around Americans who buy medication in person while traveling.

Source: Americans Are About to Lose Access to Cheap Gray-Market Prescriptions From Canada

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This will predictably increase the share of these products that get sold in the black market, and the share of users using the black market. We’re already halfway there anyway with many Indian vendors offering reships and crypto payment options. They just need to work on their stealth packaging now.

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I just ordered from Maulik this morning ( rapa, brillo, selegiline ); we will see if/when it arrives. :slight_smile:

FWIW…

Received the following…

09/25/2026

11:30 P.M.

The status of your package has changed.
Additional charges may have been applied based on recent tariff policy changes.

Rescheduled Delivery Date: Wednesday, 09/30/2026

Exception Reason: We are experiencing transit delays. We will deliver your package as soon as possible.

Exception Resolution: A hold on your package has been resolved.

To me this translates to they will be collecting / billing duty.
The total product cost was $220.00 plus shipping

Shipped by UPS Worldwide Expedited

At least on some medicines, he seems higher priced:

Huh. The prices I had received had been in line with what others said their sirolimus was costing. But he also knew that I’m on this forum, so maybe he was trying to be competitive. I have no idea what the medication this person requested is though. Maybe it depends on the medicine.

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He was neck and neck with Maulik on requests I had made but gave me more thorough information on something. So I defaulted to using his business. But now I’m going to write to Maulik as well and see which one seems to be giving helpful info re: what’s happening at customs.

What seller was this?

well this dude gave me prices same as Maulik, i.e ezedoc 100 tablets for 38.5 as opposed to Maulik $40. only bought couple times from him but seemed very competitive and both times through Dubai and both shipments arrived ok. Give it a shot and find out yourself:

Aviora Exim, I only communicate through WhatsApp with him 91 80070 31383

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Considering the amount of money I spend on medications for 3 people, I don’t want to take the risk on having problems on October 22nd, so I’m restocking now rather than December like I normally do. 2 year supply for everything.

But I’m seriously debating a 3 year supply now.

Also this is a situation where you have nothing to.gain by waiting but potentially tens of thousands of dollars to lose. It’s a gamble with no downside and potentially tens of thousands of dollars of saving. Stocking up now is a no-brainer IMHO.

Yes, stocking up is a good plan. But! What about expiration dates? How do I find and order Sirolimus that is good for 3 or more years? I just ordered some but it will expire in 2027.

Or maybe the date is not black and white? And the product is still viable after the date and if so, for how long? I do store my pills in the freezer. Any ideas y’all?

Medicine is usually good long after the expiration date but it’s effectiveness may decrease. I believe it is not much of a decrease though.

Keep them stored away from high heat and water, and you’re probably fine. I don’t worry about expiration dates. See these articles:

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Yeah, I forgot what med it was but remember a while back some dude in reddit had tested some 7-year-old medicine and had come back just fine at 98.5% or so effectiveness and no other contaminants. With exception of some antibiotics which are not supposed to be taken after expiry, most other meds are perfectly fine to even 7 or 10 years. I actually found some Viagra and metformin in old cupboard from 2018, and both seem to have survived intact. Obviously, I didn’t send them to a lab for testing, but Viagra does work just fine (that’s easy to test LOL) and even metformin seems ok also as far as i can tell with the glucose monitoring. I am stocked for anywhere from 3-7 years and wanted to make everything at least five-year supply but my wine fridge (which I use to store medicine) is actually full LOL. I might still place couple more orders …

I bought a dedicated minifridge just for meds. In retrospect, I should have bought a regular size fridge, as the mini is completely full. Except for things like antibiotics (as kelman says), expiration is not a practical worry. That said, I keep 'em around 50-55 F, not in the freezer (either extreme in temps is suboptimal), all of them in plastic baggies with plenty of dessicant tabs; the big enemies of chemical stability are: extreme temps, moisture, light - and temp variability (i.e. pulling them out, leaving outside long enough to change the temp, then putting back in. Keep them in a dark, cold, dry place and don’t change the temp too much - steady is the key. Locked up in the fridge, small amounts quickly pulled out once a week.

The original rapamycin was stored in a freezer and forgotten for 5 years.
I expect that the shelf life of the rapamycin, especially the tablets that are sealed in their aluminum packaging, would be good for more than three years stored in a freezer.

I was just talking to Jagdish, and he said already the USA have put restrictions of 30 day supply only and that they have already restricted prescription drugs unless you have a prescription for them

I was just talking to Jagdish in India and he has already stopped sending any further medications unless we have a prescription for them and then only three months supply will be sent. So I have asked him if he can send my supply to my son In cyprus, he said he will respond tomorrow as it is nighttime there right now, so this might be an option, I don’t think my doctor would give me a prescription for Moni, however, he would give me a prescription for Rapamycin or metformin, but I am used to taking modern once or twice a week now and I really do not want to lose that great feeling.

No, put it in the freezer.
The original rapamycin was stored in a freezer for 5 years.

Every supplier of the powder recommends storing it at-20 °C

I suspect that the pill form supplied in hermetically sealed aluminum would last longer than 3 years.

“Keep container tightly closed in a dry and well-ventilated place. Store in freezer.”

Recommended storage temperature: Powder -20°C 3 years

Conditions for safe storage, including any incompatibilities · Storage: -20°C

Specific designs for storage rooms or vessels

Recommended storage temperature: -20 °C